Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-16
CORRESPONDENCE.
Rain In Europe-TOurs-Its Inferior
 Inhabitants-The Grand DefiIe.

Rain In Europe-Tours-Its Inferior
 Inhabitants-The Grand DefiIe.
 TOURS, May 29.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER.
 There is no use. It rains just as hard here as in Paris. The amount of rain that has fallen all over the northwestern part of Flu rope during the last month can hardly fail to have an effect on the earth's center of gravity. It has rained steadily for say thir- ty days at the rate of at least an inch a day. weight of thirty inches of water spread all over England, Ireland, Wales, France, Bel gium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Prussia and parts of Russial Figures convey no idea of the thing. And this incalculable weight has been taken from other parts of the earths surface. The rest of the world
 must be as thin, as dry and as light as a man
 who hasn't had drink for row of fort nights The earth must be wobbling under so terrible displacement Still I must not trespass on premises where Brewer and Loo mis rule supreme. Let them reassure. The fact remains that it continues to rain. Riv- CTS have given up in despair and make no further efforts to carry off to the sea the SurpluS uOOOS, aQO all Spuuh duu IuIcE6Sl lS c1ean1y washed out of sightseeing.
 Tours, where it is the fashion to live eco- nomically, is robing itself for fete, the
 "XIII Fete Federale de PUnion des Societies de Gymnastique de France" Last night there was 'Gtande Fanfare" and tonight there is to be 8 "Grande Banquet" and then sNuit Feerique." It takes about ten feet of programme to give all the fairy details.
 At the end is saving clause: "En cas de mauvais temps Ia fete semise au lende- main" The ''Grand Defle'' has just taken place. About twenty gymnastic clubs are represented and there are about five men and ten boys to each club. One New York po- liceman could easily make way with the whole 'defle." The men and women of this place don't begin to compare with the men and women of Caen and thereabouts. I have been walking about all the morning in
 spite of the rain, and have not seen one handsome woman or one fine looking man.
 There is no one type of looks as there is in
 Normandy The folks look all sorts of ways and produce the effect of badly blended
 wines. They are all ugly; some very ugly,
 and they are very badly put together. They
 have large and unmanageable feet and hands,
 weak and poorly constructed legs and torsos
 with plane and angular elevations. Their
 noses chins, eyes and mouths are discon-
 nected and consequently convey no ideas.
 Their faces do not seem to have force enough
 to figure out the unity of a thought. It
 seems as if their ancestors years and years
 ago must have been addicted to poor matri-
 monial alliances, and they are the wretched
 result suppose a French ethno1ogist can
 explain it all, and hope he will; for it is a
 pity you should be left ln ignorance I con clude that the best people were the Hugue- nots, and that when they were extirpated there was nothing left but dregs, and the dregs have increased and multiplied.
 In murder and iconoclasm the country all the way up and down the Loire has ever re- tained it's fertility. The Church of St. Mar tin is an instance. Martin was undoubtedly one of the most excellent of Frenchmen. During the latter part of the fourth century he filled all this part of Gaul full with his goodness, his piety, his Christian exeellen- | cies. (How the white trowsers of the | ssgrand defile" must be catching it. It is | jeune Tourrainniene opposite, whose window | is just on line with mine He was arch bishop, and when dead and sainted faith for | centuries wrought miracles of cure about his \ tomb. His church in Tours, where was his shrine, was one of the richest, largest and l finest in Christendom. It and the abbey about it were at one time quite as large as the rest of Tours, and all religious people ! honored St. Martin as they did St. Denis, Peter Martyr or Thomas a Beckett. The rev | olutionists of 1780 were not satisfied with ! tearing all the church to pieces, but they ! Opeueo U ueW SITe0b TlSuG StralRQt IuEOuSl | where it had stood, and made good republi. | cans build houses on either side with stones l from the shrine. This was to prevent any | possible rebuilding. Two towers whose | foundations and substruct date back to Charlemagne were too sturdy for the repub- lican assaults. They still stand blocks apart, | testifying to the extent of the building. But so effsctually has every plan and sketch dis appeared that their relations to the building and to one another can be but little more than guessed at. It is curious to walk about | in the neighborhood and every now and then see bit of the old church wall poking itself through modern house or store. Before the German war some pious persons thought they had discovered the site of the tomb and set about raising funds to clear it and to re- construct the church, but now they are won- dering if there ever were St. Martin; ii there ever was time when France was
 strong and glorious
 The "Grand Defile" is coming back soaked through and through. Don't even in jest add another letter to their name, for they started out full of French hope-the French always hope the impossible-that they might | from two to five on the Champs de Mars every French town has a Champs de Mars l show forth to admiring multitudes their va
 ried gymnastic prewess. It is a vsritable "sauve qui peut." One would imagine that
 "Nuit Feerique' will undoubtedly avail itself of the saving clause. PERIANDER.
 which has tract of land in the west part of Win sted. intends to erect there high elevation
 soldiers monument at cost of about $7,o00 The
 representative in the last legislature. Designs fo